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Member Spotlight: Ocean County College

OCC Initiates an E-Learning Partnership With China Open University in Tianjin, China

by Janet Hubbs

Starting in September 2012, Ocean County College (OCC), located in Toms River, New Jersey, will begin extending its course offerings more than half way around the world to students at Tianjin Open University (TOU), in Tianjin Province, People’s Republic of China, through a new E-Learning partnership facilitated by the Time Cruiser Computing Corporation.

OCC is a large community college in south central New Jersey with an additional location in Manahawkin and twelve off-campus sites around the county. It currently enjoys an on-campus partnership with Kean University, through which OCC graduates can obtain both baccalaureate and master’s degrees in a county that otherwise lacks a four-year public college or university.

OCC also boasts a mature and successful distance learning program, currently offering five full degree programs online with an enrollment of almost 30,000 credit hours in 451 online sections of 68 courses.

TOU was established in 1958 with its main campus currently in the center of the city of Tianjin, 87 miles east of Beijing. It has an open college, two technical schools, 22 local branches, and 18 study centers, with 221 faculty and staff members and more than 60,000 students. The university offers 72 specialties in eight disciplines: art, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, economics, management, and law. It has produced more than 100,000 junior college graduates and 170,000 certificate holders in job-specific training.

As a member of the Asian Association of Open Universities, TOU has focused considerable attention on international academic exchanges. It has sent its faculty and staff to colleges and universities around the world, and scholars from more than ten countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico, have visited TOU.

OCC and TOU will partner first in a pilot program offering two degree emphases: business administration and computer science. OCC will offer three core courses (English, history, and general psychology) and one specialty course for each program (Introduction to Business Administration and Programming I) to Tianjin students online.

In September of 2011, two delegates from TOU visited OCC. In December of 2011, OCC President, Dr. Jon Larson, Executive Vice President, Dr. James McGinty, and faculty interpreter, Dr. Xaio Ming Yang, visited Tianjin for the signing of a letter of intent that currently defines the partnership.